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Council chiefs say, like other local authorities across Scotland, that they receive a higher-than- normal number of reports of damage to roads and pavements at this time of year.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said: “Unfortunately, there is very little which can be done to stop potholes happening – that’s simply a result of the climate we live in.

“However, we can respond quickly when potholes do appear and we have a system in place which makes it easier for people to let us know about potholes and, in turn, let us react as fast as possible.

“We investigate and deal with pothole issues as they arise and in our latest budget for 2017/18, actually increased our roads budget by £1million to help ensure our roads network remained overall in good condition.

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“Given the wide geography of North Ayrshire, including our islands and rural towns and villages, it is not possible to fix all potholes straight away – but we do prioritise the most serious reports and work our way through them as quickly as possible.

“We have drafted in additional workforce to fix potholes and we’d like to thank those dedicated teams who are working to keep North Ayrshire on the move.

“Over the past few weeks, we have drafted in external contractors to work alongside our existing road maintenance teams to ensure repairs to road surfaces are made as quickly as possible.”

Potholes occur when water seeps between small cracks in the road surface caused by the wear and tear of traffic. As the temperatures cool to freezing, the water becomes ice and expands below the surface, forcing the cracks to widen and create potholes.